Players look sharp in testing

Rovers fitness chief Rob Lee says the first-team players have looked after themselves over the summer, after two days of testing at Cantley Park before pre-season gets underway on Monday.

The club’s medical and fitness staff joined the players on Thursday and Friday, recording their wellbeing and ensuring personalised training plans were ready for Monday when pre-season gets underway with fitness work.

“Pre-season testing is all about seeing the general physical condition of the players when they come back in, the physios will do all of their checks, and we’ll do strength and power testing to make sure the lads have stuck to their programmes over the off-season,” said Rob, head of sports science.

“Once we have the results from all the tests we can then individualise what the players are going to do, then we will do the body composition and body fat and weight, the stuff that the manager really wants to know.

“After that we’re out on the pitch to do some speed and agility work with the lads ready for the start of pre-season training next week, the tests give not just us but the players a good chance to see how the programmes have worked for them.”

Rovers begin training properly on Monday ahead of their first pre-season games against Alfreton Town and Frickley Athletic, and Lee says the squad will have specialised targets to hit in order to be ready for the start of the new season, which kicks off with a trip to Southend United at the beginning of August.

“We’ll be able to set them targets for pre-season and we can give them an idea of where they are with their fitness ranked against each other, we sent them away with the work to do and it’s been their job to ensure they stay fit,” he added.

“The senior players are used to all this testing now, they’ve been doing that every year for the past few years, but a lot of them do get their own individualised programmes to work on over the summer to make sure they’re in good nick for when they return.”

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